Zack Eflin rang in his thirties on a halo-encrusted mound at Angel Stadium Monday, but the outcome wasn’t as enjoyable as he may have hoped.
Eflin gave up five runs in five innings on nine hits while racking up five strikeouts in front of a crowd of 18,748.
The bottom of the first inning started with an RBI triple from Mike Trout to score Anthony Rendon, and Taylor Ward driving in Trout with a single to start the evening with a 2-0 lead for the Halos.
The Trout triple tied him with Chone Figgins for second the all-time Angels triples list.
In the bottom of the third, Trout homered to dead-center field to bring the Angels lead to 3-0.
In the bottom of the fifth, Ward would drive in two more on an RBI single to make it 5-0
Luis Rengifo and Mickey Moniak would drive in the final two Angels runs of the night in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, to make it 7-0.
In the top of the ninth, Issac Paredes would ground into a double play to score Harold Ramirez to plate the only Rays run of the night to make it 7-1, and that’s how the contest would be decided.
Tyler Anderson dazzled over seven innings of shutout pitching while striking out three and walking one, and would earn the win.
On Tuesday night, Aaron Civale will go against Patrick Sandoval at 9:38 EST from Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
